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NBA Picks

NBA Picks of the Day: Best Of Monday's Winning Hoop Selections

Monday is here and blessing us with a load of good NBA Odds. I have found two more that I think hold some great value, and I am adding them to my NBA Picks of the day.

Cavs vs. Pacers
Cleveland continues their divisional run tonight as they head into Bankers Life Fieldhouse to play the Pacers. Indiana is back to looking like a top team in the East after a long West Coast January road trip, and now they would love to start the month of February off right with a win against the Cavs. It won’t be easy tonight. The NBA Odds have the Cavs as -4½ road favorites, with a total of 210 points. However, the line is starting to move upward as well. Cleveland opened at an even -4, and now sportsbooks like Bovada have the line at -5, while Heritage has moved theirs up to -5 as well.

However, the Pacers tend to play Lebron James and the Cavaliers tough, and I expect nothing less tonight. The Pacers covered their first meeting with the Cavs this season losing by only four points in Cleveland, and now with the Cavs coming into their house for the first time, the Fieldhouse is going to be rocking tonight.

Cleveland has not been too reliable ATS on the road in conference games this season. They have gone only 5-8-1 ATS when playing on the road against a conference foe, while the Pacers have been one of the best teams playing at home in conference games. They are 10-3 ATS this season when playing Eastern Conference teams in Indianapolis, and they are 7-2 ATS this season when playing divisional opponents as well.

While the Pacers may be without Ian Mahinmi tonight, that just means we might see what young, Myles Turner is made of in the paint tonight. He should create some mismatches on offense as well, and all it might take is one big block from him to get the crowd going and keep the energy up in that building all night. I expect this to be a lower scoring game with both teams playing very good defense against conference opponents, but that should favor the home team taking points. Don’t hesitate to add the under as well, though.

Mavericks vs. Hawks
Both of these teams played last night, and now they travel into Atlanta for an inter-conference showdown in the dirty south. The NBA Odds have the Hawks as -6½ favorites in this one, with a total of 198½. Last night the Mavs’ defense actually came to play with Dirk Nowitzki sitting out due to rest, and while they only allowed 78 points to the Suns, ruining our chances of going 3-0 last night, a lot of that had to do with the Suns just being a horrible team and getting their coach fired this morning.

Tonight though, the Hawks and Mavs present some interesting value, especially if Nowitzki ends up playing in this game, which I’m almost positive he will. The Mavs have been a good team coming off the back to back this season at 7-5 ATS, and with their veteran playmaker coming back tonight that should increase their odds of covering tonight, because in a lot of these back to backs, Nowitzki hasn’t even played. However, because they rested him on the first half of the back to back this time around, I’m leaning towards taking the points.

The Hawks are now only 1-5 ATS in their last six games overall, they have lost four of their last five games SU, and I think they are finally realizing last year was a fluke (or that DeMarre Carroll was a lot more valuable than the Hawks thought) and that they need to start selling off pieces. Outside of last season, the Hawks have been plagued by mediocrity with this group, and a Jeff Teague trade should be in the works, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see Al Horford get traded for some controllable assets as well. Take the points tonight as the NBA Pick.